Easton shooting was factor in later fatal raid

By Daniel Tepfer, Staff writer

Published 10:01 pm, Thursday, March 11, 2010

EASTON -- The fatal outcome of a police raid on a local home nearly two years ago is well known.

Nine police officers dressed in tactical gear and carrying assault rifles charged into a small ranch-style home on Dogwood Drive, killing a 33-year-old visitor, Gonzalo Guizan of Norwalk, on May 18, 2008.

But local police, for the first time Wednesday, detailed a motivating factor for the raid as an Old Saybrook man was arrested for an earlier incident at the house.

In an investigative report on the incident done after the fatal raid, police cited a May 7, 2008, incident in which the Dogwood Drive home of Ronald Terebesi was fired upon with a shotgun. No motive or suspects in that shooting were released.

On Wednesday, Frank Stella, 37, of Old Saybrook, was charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree reckless endangerment, and police are seeking to arrest a second man, Abraham Soudan of Florida, in connection with the May 7 shooting at the house.

Four shotgun blasts were fired at Terebesi's house -- one through a rear door, one through a kitchen window and two through a front window.

Terebesi told police he thought the shooting might have been in retaliation for his "good Samaritan" acts saving women from a life of prostitution. But the recently released police report instead states the shooting appears to have been in retaliation for Terebesi sexually assaulting an exotic dancer in his bedroom.

Terebesi's lawyer, Gary Mastronardi, charged the new information released by police is an attempt to cast aspersions on his client and justify police conduct during the fatal raid.

"It's no coincidence that this has come out at a time when I am requesting disclosure from them," said Mastronardi, who is representing Terebesi in a lawsuit filed against Easton and the other police departments whose officers participated in the raid. "It's clearly drafted in a way to cast Mr. Terebesi in a bad light. The man has two fusion surgeries on his neck and is practically an invalid. He would not have been able to force himself on anyone."

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, a 29-year-old Massachusetts woman, who works as a dancer for Entertainment Unlimited in Milford, told police she was hired to go to Terebesi's home on May 6, 2008.

The dancer told police Terebesi was smoking crack cocaine while she was at his house, he often went to his kitchen and mixed powdered cocaine, baking soda and a liquid in a small blender and then cooked the concoction in the microwave, the affidavit states.

The woman performed lap dances for Terebesi, according to the affidavit. At some point he brought her to a bedroom that had plastic laid out on the floor and "forced" himself on her, the affidavit states. The woman admitted to police that even though Terebesi raped her, she did not want to pursue criminal charges against him, the affidavit said.

The woman later got a ride to a Dunkin' Donuts outlet in West Haven, where she allegedly called Soudan and hysterically told him what had transpired at Terebesi's home, the affidavit states. Soudan drove to pick up the woman in a white sport-utility vehicle; Stella was a passenger.

"Abe was completely out of his element -- angry," the woman told police. "He put the address of Ron (Terebesi) in his GPS system and went straight there." After they arrived at the Easton home, the affidavit indicates Soudan got out of the SUV and, a few minutes later, the woman heard gunshots. Soudan got back into the SUV, tossed a shotgun into the back seat and they drove away.